- The Blackhawk Be-Wharned – used by Team DVM in Iraq
I have been looking for a wharncliffe folding knife for some time now, but most of the wharncliffe folders I have seen were custom jobs [= $$$]. I did take a look at the wharncliffe folders made by Spyderco but I am not a huge fan of Spyderco knives, I think the hole they use for opening looks ugly and they don’t work that well with my Neanderthal thumbs.
I also wanted a liner lock, a blade length around 3 ½” and a price under a 100 bucks. Now, I am cool with paying a premium price for a blade but in this instance I was looking for a wharncliffe folder for the specific purpose of only using it as a fighting knife. So I would not be using this knife for doing EDC things like opening boxes or utility cutting, basically it would stay in my pocket unless I was going to cut a fool.
I ran across the “Be-Wharned” when I was on the [oddly, not painfully slow anymore] Blackhawk website looking for Plate Carriers for an upcoming Hostile Environment class I am teaching. And when I saw it was designed by famed knife designer and knife fighting instructor/author Michael Janich it definitely sparked my interest [Janich is the reason why I like the wharncliffe blade for fighting knives].
At first the 99.00 dollar price on the Blackhawk website sort of put me off, but when I checked the LA Police Gear website they had it for only 69 bucks so I ordered one up.
The Blackhawk Be-Wharned is a 4.2 oz liner locking 3.4 inch [overall opened length 7.8 inches] AUS8A stainless steel wharncliffe bladed folder with G-10 scales. The G-10 scales on the Be-Wharned stick to your hand like superglue, even when wearing gloves or with wet sweaty hands. The pocket clip can be mounted in 4 different positions for left and right handed tip-up or down pocket carry.
Click Here to keep Reading – KNIVES: Blackhawk Be-Wharned Review >>>
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- ho-ho-ho-ho-ho
I Hope you guys are having a good holiday, I am not really a big Christmas person, but a few guys from Team DVM here in Iraq are dragging me out tonight for X-Mas Dinner – I hear the DFAC Canned turkey will be especially delicious this year – LOL
Anyway, thanks my Pimps – You are all cool on my book and totally deserving of an Asian cutey under your tree [BTW: Santa only gives that gift to those who have been naughty, so go kick a puppy or something]
Click Here to Keep Reading – MERRY X-MAS DVM PIMPS – May Santa Put a Sexy Asian Gal Under Your Tree >>>
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- Dinner time in Iraq
Supervisor: “Hey, Unicorns Are Real”
Contractor: “Yes Sir, And Majestic Creatures They Are”
The above may be a bit of an exaggeration when it comes to working as a Civilian Contractor – but unfortunately it is not far from the truth. One of the hardest things for new guys to deal with when they enter the Civilian Contracting world is excepting all of the illogical things you are told or asked to do without arguing them.
For those of you who have never worked as a Civilian Contractor you are probably not familiar with the nonsense you are expected to accept with a smile on your face. And unlike “normal” jobs where you can point out inaccurate information or suggest a way to improve a failed way of doing things – In Contracting if you argue or try to change things it is considered “bad”.
“Bad” as in you are now a trouble-maker and your next stop is the Civilian Contractor equivalent of being transferred to an Alaskan Radar Station, usually the Civilian Contractor Alaskan Radar Station is the most miserable post/job on the contract.
Think going from a cake gig working in a nice AC’d Tactical Operations Center one day to standing at an Entry Control Point in 130 degree heat wearing full Battle-Rattle and working 12 hour shifts on the ass-end of base the next day.
And all this just because you kept harping on management that they should issue IFAK’s to everyone instead of just Team Leaders, you even wrote up an email with a proposal and sent it to the in-country manager when mid-level management shot down your idea.
Yep, even if your argument makes sense you will become “that guy” to management.
Click Here to Keep Reading – CIVILIAN CONTRACTORS: Shit – It is What’s For Dinner >>>
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- TSA Math
I recently came across this “Workforce Stories” article on the TSA’s website about a guy who was issued a criminal summons for a carrying a concealed weapon when he tried to board a fight carrying a Tactical Pen in his backpack.
Below is the TSA article unedited:
“When is a pen not just a pen? The answer is when it doubles as a potential weapon.
A TSO at Palm Beach International (Fla.) was working the X-ray machine when he came across an anomaly on the screen and called for a search of a passenger’s backpack. Inside, the responding Officer discovered a tactical pen, used commonly by law enforcement as a defense tool with its sharp aluminum-based point on one end and blunt portion on the other.
A Supervisory TSO confirmed that item was a prohibited item. The police responded and issued the passenger a criminal summons to appear in court – under the state statute – for carrying a concealed weapon. He was cleared for travel and there were no flight delays.”
Interesting right? When I was reading this I was thinking “man, I have carried a Tactical Pen on airplane flights dozens of times”. This sort of freaked me out because if I was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon I would be 100% fucked because I would lose my security clearance = never work as a Civilian Contractor again – EVER.
One thing I was wondering is; if this guy was not boarding an Airplane could he still have been arrested for Carrying a Concealed Weapon? As far as I know [just off the top of my head] as long as the pen writes it is still considered a pen, so only Tactical Pens that don’t write or don’t have ink could be considered a “weapon” right?
Wrong! [Well, sort of] this is what my Criminal Defense Attorney friend told me:
Click here to Keep Reading – EDC NEWS: Man Packing a Tactical Pen Arrested for Carrying a Concealed Weapon at Palm Beach International Airport >>>
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- LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants Being Field tested in Iraq by James G.
No matter how much I loathe tactical clothing it is something that is a part of my daily life, especially considering my occupation as a Security Contractor in Iraq. I remember getting a big box of 5.11’s on my first gig in Iraq and thinking “cool, free Tactical Clothing for James G.
And after a week of dealing with the saggy ass, flat leg pockets that were just small enough that nothing really fit in them, the “grandpa height” waistband that rode half way up your stomach and the tons of metal hardware that sets off every other airport metal detector I was pretty much sick of 5.11’s.
But at that time I really didn’t have any other option outside of buying pricey climbing gear pants like North Face, and being the cheap type that idea passed in and out of my mind in like 3 seconds.
Fast forward a few years and the Tactical Clothing market was flooded with Tacticool pants… At prices that would make you piss your ill-fitting 5.11’s. So I was pretty much content with wearing issued Tactical Pants that even had my grandfather making fun of me because they rode too high.
Ahhh… but then the Tactical Fairy came and visited me one night right before my latest gig in Iraq and stuffed a pair of LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants under my pillow.
I tell ya, it only took a week of wearing them for me to give away all but one pair of my 5.11’s [got to have something to wear on laundry day] and replace all of my work Tactical pants with LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants
These pants have every feature that an active Security Operator working in War Zones would need. Diamond Gusset Crotch [great if you have a big package], Double Fabric on the Knees and Ass, fits riggers belts like a glove, a lower leg pocket on each leg right around the calf [I keep my smokes in them] and are tough as nails.
Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL CLOTHING – FIELD TESTED: LA Police Gear Operator Tactical Pants >>>
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- Boker Plus Credit Card Knife – Don’t Leave home without it
I first saw this cool little folder about a year ago, it was made by custom knife maker John Kubasek out of Massachusetts. I thought it was a clever idea but the 175.00 price tag sort of turned me away from picking one up.
So when I was browsing some of my favorite knife retail sites I was surprised to see that Boker had licensed the design from Kubasek for production, and at a wallet friendly price of 19.95. At that price [and considering I had wanted one for quite some time] I went ahead and ordered one up for myself.
I am actually not really familiar with Boker knives outside of seeing them for sale in the PX. But from looking over a few Boker folders that some buddy’s of mine here in Iraq have they seem like ok blades, especially considering the price [all the Boker knives in the PX are under 30 bucks].
The Boker Plus Credit Card Knife is a cool little knife that opens by rotating the blade across the handle/liner where it locks into place. When closed, the blade lays on the handle/liner, at first I thought the exposed blade may be unsafe but it fits snug enough as not to expose the sharpened blade.
Click Here to Keep Reading – KNIVES: Boker Plus Credit Card Knife Review >>>
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- the D3 Protection “Fatty” Sap – Almost too beautiful to beat the shit out of a fool with
There is nothing quite like the feel of an Old School leather sap in your hand; it’s just like you’re channeling the spirit of a 50’s Chicago beat cop in the palm of your hand. The Sap was actually the first impact weapon I ever owned, I picked one up at a local army surplus store in Virginia when I was 16.
Since then I have owned a couple dozen different saps, picking them up everywhere from a street stall in Bangkok to [oddly] amazon.com. But as much as I love Saps the biggest problem with buying them is Quality.
99% of the Saps you will buy are quite frankly shit; lousy 3rd world machine stitching that comes apart in a few months, cheap thin leather and lead powder that turns into a solid block when exposed to the slightest amount of moisture.
I was pretty much content with just having to buy a new Sap every year until I came across D3 Protection. D3 is a custom leather maker shop out of Canada that specializes in high quality [yet surprisingly reasonably priced] handmade Saps and Impact Weapons.
D3 has a bunch of different styles of Saps but the one that caught my eye was the D3 Protection “Fatty” because it had a metal pocket clip [something I have never seen on a sap before]. As soon as you hold the “Fatty” in your hand you will immediately feel the work and quality that goes into hand making each one that separates D3 Saps from every other Sap on the market.
Click here to Keep Reading – WEAPONS: the D3 Protection
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- Just because you fell doesn’t mean you are out of the fight
Many people are aware of the fact that falls are one of the leading causes of injury and death. As a matter of fact some statistics show that they are the leading cause of death between people 0-14 years old and those over 25. The vast majority of falls are of course accidental, but what about those that occur during interpersonal combat.
The only fear we are born with is the fear of falling. This is known as the Moro Response, those of you who have kids have seen it. An infant is sleeping on their back on a flat surface, a door slams, the infants and legs reflexively jerk in before spreading back out.
We also experience this when we are dozing off and get that falling feeling. It is also what happens when we lose our balance going backwards; our head tries to get back over our feet as our arms flail out to the side in an attempt to regain balance.
Time and time again in all types of training, and more importantly in the street, I see people fall. Ask anyone who is a Judo practitioner or any of the other arts that include throwing and they will tell you how much time is spent learning to fall correctly.
They will also tell you that the younger you start the better it is. There are two reasons for this, the first and most obvious is that when you are younger it just does not hurt as much. The second is that the older we get, the more times we have fallen, and the more panicked our response becomes.
Click Here to Keep Reading – TACTICAL TRAINING: The Fall Guy >>>
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- Good night
“90% of all fights end up on the ground”
~ MMA Practitioners
“90% of all fights end up on the ground because 90% of people don’t know how to properly punch someone so they end the fight on their feet”
~ My Boxing Coach
Since the dawn of time, when man first beat another man’s ass into the ground no other fighting technique has been studied and analyzed to near level of perfection that boxing has. Sure there are many other great Martial Arts out there, but none have been scientifically refined into the pure brutality that Boxing is.
I am by no means saying a boxer can beat any other martial artist’s ass on the street 100% of the time, such internet arguments [“MMA is better than Kali”] are gay. I am simply pointing out the substantial advantages of boxing from the point of view of someone that has been in, or witnessed a substantial amount of H2H fights in a non sport environment.
And really when it comes down to it, no matter how skilled you are in any martial art – in a real fight [be it with firearms or fists], as in all warrior skills, victory will come down to the individual warrior having the heart and killer instinct to stand victorious over his adversaries.
Now let’s jump right into some of the reasons why Boxing is the best fighting style [in my opinion]:
Click Here to Keep Reading – H2H: Why Boxing it the Superior Martial Art >>>
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- anyone Can Access All of Your Online Accounts at a wi-fi hotspot using this Free Program
I’m sitting here in Starbucks right now playing around with something called firesheep. Some of you may have heard of it as it’s been in the web news a lot in the last few days.
Let me give you a bit of background on what exactly firesheep is.
Firesheep is a Firerfox add-in that demonstrates just exactly how insecure those ‘secure’ sites are. The sites I’m talking about are:
Amazon.com, Basecamp, bit.ly, Cisco, CNET, Dropbox, Enom, Evernote, Facbook, Flickr, foursquare, GitHub, Google, Gowalla, Hacker News, Harvest, Windows Live, New York Times, Pivotal Tracker, ToorCon: San Diego, Slicehost SliceManager, tumblr.com, Twitter, WordPress, Yahoo and Yelp
What it does is monitor the wi-fi network and grab any of the cookies that are posted to those sites as people are logging in and authenticating to the sites with their accounts. The initial login may be encrypted, but the ensuing cookie used by the sites to keep a track of the sessions aren’t.
Click Here to Keep Reading – INFORMATION SECURITY: Sidejacking Wi-Fi Hotspots – How a Hacker Can Access All of Your Online Accounts With a Free Program >>>
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